Network systems such as the Internet provide users with access to large amounts of information. In order to allow network users to find and organize information on network systems that is relevant to specific subject matter topics, various techniques have been developed. One such technique involves the use of “tags” and network-based tag services.
A tag may be a word or group of words that may be assigned to one or more items (e.g., files, documents, web pages on the Internet, items displayed via a web-based retail store, digital photographs displayed via a network, bookmarks, etc.). Tags may be used by users of a network system to, among other things, classify items, for example, by tagging a group of photographs with the tag “snow,” and search for items, for example, by searching for photographs related to winter, using a tag-based search, and entering the tag “winter.” Often, a single tag may be assigned to multiple items, and a single item may be associated with multiple tags.
A tag service may be presented within a variety of environments (e.g., as a part of a web-based retail operation offering shoppers the ability to tag specific items). The items being tagged may be provided by the network system, or by users of the network system, or by another entity. Typically, tags to be assigned to the item or items are chosen by users of the network system.
Upon tagging an item, certain information may be made available to other users of the tag service (e.g., users are often able to view all items having a common tag, regardless of what user assigned the tag to the individual items). This may be a particularly useful feature when, for example, conducting web-based searches, because tag-based searches generally generate results already deemed somehow relevant (i.e., “tagged”) by other users.
However, because tag services depend on users to assign tags to items, there exists the potential that different users will use different tags that mean essentially the same thing or represent essentially identical subject matter. For example, two users shopping at a web-based retail store may each wish to tag a cellular phone. One user may assign the item the tag “phone,” while the other may subsequently assign the item the tag “cell phone.” As a result, subsequent tag-based searches using one of the two terms may not capture items tagged with the other term.
It would therefore be desirable to have a system that facilitates the development of a unified, or normalized, set of tags as more users utilize tagging systems. Other features and advantages will be made apparent from the present specification. The teachings disclosed extend to those embodiments that fall within the scope of the appended claims, regardless of whether they satisfy one or more of the above-identified needs.